The invent ion relates to a method for transferring a design such as image and text motifs to a large-area backing with porous surface, the design being transferred onto a paper and from this paper to the backing by means of heat. The invention further relates to a paper for use in this method.
To transfer motifs, for example from newspapers, personal pictures or similar in particular onto textiles such as T-shirts, the process is known of placing a paper that comprises a silicone-treated carrier paper and a rubber film laminated thereon onto a necessarily printed original design with unmodified surface in order to iron the paper onto this design. The design with the ironed-on paper is then placed in a warm soapy solution to separate it from the paper. The design is thereby transferred to the rubber film. A further paper of identical structure is then placed on the intermediate product thereby obtained in order to transfer this intermediate product onto the paper by ironing. The carrier paper is peeled off the still-hot intermediate product. Finally, the intermediate product is ironed onto the textile backing, and the carrier paper then removed from this textile backing.
A method of this type is obviously not only complicated, but also has the drawback that not every original design can be used for transfer to a textile backing. Further-more, the resultant end product feels foreign on the textile backing, since the transferred design has a rubber-like texture.
In the present invention, a transfer sheet is used for transferring an image formed by electrostatic copying to a backing of textile fabric or other porous material. The transfer sheet is composed of a substrate of plain paper without any release treatment or coating applied thereto and a transfer coating of polymeric film material bonded on a transfer side thereof. Transfer of the image is accomplished using only the single transfer sheet. The polymeric film coating remains adhered to the plain paper substrate during electrostatic copying, thereby avoiding contamination of the copier/printer. The plain paper substrate is removed after image transfer by peeling it away from the backing while still hot.
In accordance with the invention, any required original design is copied xerographically, for example, onto the paper in a dry process or transferred with thermoprinters or color thermoprinters onto the paper, in order to then transfer it without further intermediate steps directly onto the in particular textile backing, such as cotton, mixed cotton fabric or synthetic material, using pressure and heat, with complete penetration into the fibers. Accordingly, the design xe2x80x9cimprintedxe2x80x9d on the textile backing is not a foreign body, as with the known methods, where the transferred design has a rubber-like feel.
The backings used can also be other flat and large-area objects with porous surface such as leather, wood like plywood, or similar.
The method in accordance with the invention permits a transfer of any design onto a backing without the backing itself having to be altered in any way. Accordingly, any number of backings can be provided with the appropriate images from one and the same original design. As a result, more than one series of products can be provided with designs from the same original, which in the prior art is possible as a rule only by screen printing, i.e. by a costly manufacturing process. The designs transferred by the method in accordance with the invention fill the texture better than in screen printing, resulting in a higher quality.